theantichick

And I miss the hell out of those sizes!! Lane Bryant Blue tall pants were the only ones that ever in my entire life fit me off the rack! ::pout::

I'm definitely a pear. A more round-ish pear than I used to be. When I was at my thinnest (size 10) I had a 13-14" difference between my waist and hips. Finding pants to fit me was hellish. My waist has gotten wider so the difference between my waist and hips is only about 10" now, but if I get pants to fit my waist and hips, the thighs are too tight. I'm hoping to shape things up a bit more with this weight loss. I'm dreading the clothing challenge. I HATE clothes shopping. HATE it. I hate trying things on. I'll buy things I think will fit, then when they don't give them to Goodwill rather than return them. Sizes go all over the place, even within the same store. I hate it. But I have to get over it, because as my sizes change, I'll have to have a few wardrobe pieces that fit at each stage. I'm planning a lot of drawstring maxi skirts. :/

I hope I wasn't the one you thought was condescending to you. I was sharing my experience. What I didn't go into was what I've seen happen with people who don't address their emotional eating before WLS. I had two friends who got LapBand (this was before the sleeve was available) and the bands were barely installed before these two were deliberately seeking out what they could eat to fill their emotional void without restriction. They drank sugared sodas, ate ice cream, and ate cream based Soups (and much more). They became bulimic, purging so they could eat more. I lost track of them several years ago, but saw the guy on FB a few months ago, and he's larger than he was pre-band. From his posts, they both have developed even worse health issues, and he's no longer even mobile. Another friend had sleeve surgery without really addressing her emotional issues, and she had nothing but problems after the sleeve. She would go to OA but their very strict approach to eating would wear on her and then she'd binge. She never lost more than about 30 lbs but the ongoing medical problems, some may have been related to the surgery but we'll never know. She died last year. None of these people were low BMI, I haven't known anyone low BMI to get WLS. But they are why I'm determined to address my emotional eating issues so that the tool that is the VSG has a chance to work. The research and experiences of everyone on this board is clear. The sleeve can and will be eaten around if you don't get your emotional stuff under control. Then you will have had an irreversible surgery and possibly some long-term issues (most don't, but it's possible) for something that in the end doesn't help you. You'll hear it over and over on this board, and it's worth listening to: The surgery is a TOOL, nothing more. The restriction eases over time. That is not to say you stretch the sleeve, but rather than your tolerance for different foods in larger amounts grows. If you don't take the "honeymoon period" to change your diet and activity levels, then you'll gain the weight back, and then some. I have a number of co-morbidities and a high BMI. With my emotional eating issues, if I was a low BMI without the serious co-morbidities, I would not have the surgery until after I had addressed the emotional eating. And I believe I would likely find the surgery not needed. As it is, I'm probably having the surgery a little early in the therapy process, but there are medical reasons for rushing it, and I'm committed to the therapy so I can get the emotional stuff worked out before I'm out of the honeymoon period.

Oh, yeah... I was so focused on the head injury, I forgot about the knee thing. As someone who had to do 18 months of rehab for a knee reconstruction... GET IN THE POOL. Seriously, there is nothing better for getting moving without the pain as getting in Water. I would water walk in the pool at my 24 hour fitness center, or deep water jog in the deep end (with a flotation belt) at the city rec center.

I'm not sure I could draw my own blood unless it was life threatening and there was no one else. For starter's it's completely backwards. I let people practice on me, needles don't bother me in the slightest. Well, for some reason I'll flinch if I watch it go through the skin, but other than that I'm super fine. The bruise looks horrible, but I just bruise super easy. It doesn't hurt, so long as it's not in the hand. I don't let people stick my hands anymore, period, end of file. So I'm really not upset with her on my behalf. I'm upset because there are so many nurses out there, even those who have to draw blood or start IVs on a daily basis, who just say "I'm not good at this" and throw up their hands. For me who is an easy stick and has no issues with needles, no biggie. For one of my besties who has to be medicated for her annual blood draw AND is a hellishly hard stick? It's a problem. Or anyone else who's a hard stick and/or has varying levels of problems with needles. It's a skill and it can be learned, and it can be AND SHOULD BE improved upon. A nurse who has to draw labs some dozen times a day who says "I can't feel veins" needs some remedial work. But no one pressures them to do it, so if they don't seek it out themselves, they just don't get better. I was pretty darned good. And I still watched people who were better and asked them questions about how they did things to try and get better. Some people will naturally be better than others due to an innate talent or an obsession with it, but there should be a base level of competency in anyone who does this regularly. Just my un-caffeinated opinion.

I <3 all of y'all.

I have emotional eating problems too, and I sought help with a therapist before I started the process to get sleeved. And that's with an over 40 BMI and multiple comorbidities. If you don't address the emotional eating problem, nothing will work for you long term. If you address them, you may find the surgery is not what you need. I strongly suggest you get a good therapist to work with you on food and body issues first, and put this off until after. You can always have the sleeve later, but you can't take it back.

I can't honestly remember what all we had our c.diff patients on... I'm thinking we were doing Protonix (pantoprazole), but I could be wrong, it's been a few years. I would think the infectious disease team would be the most knowledgeable regarding the latest research on c.diff. I would take what they say over anyone else.

It *IS* a distinctive smell... I'm wondering why no one picked up on it before. :/

I love Tervis. I can get really cool styles, and the lids are replaceable when they get too grungy to clean.

They have postponed the colonoscopy for two weeks. Not sure how I feel about having another procedure while having C Diff. I am supplied with a home system for bowel wash out (fancy enema kit) so wondered if that would help get rid of this vile infection. But thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I appreciate the advice! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App I wouldn't think an enema would help. I certainly wouldn't do it without the doc saying to do it. sent from mobile device

Your docs will need to evaluate the blood and mucus. Could be nothing, could be something. No way to know without a doc investigating. I would under no circumstances do colonic irrigation. There's too high a risk of complications and contamination. sent from mobile device

Some people have good iron absorption and don't need any, ever. I have, most of my life, had a Hb of 12-14 which is really on the high side for a woman. My hemophiliac half-sister dreams of having an 8. While anything is possible, I can't remember any situation from nursing school where someone could have a Hb of 12 and be iron deficient. I wouldn't think an iron test would be all that useful if you don't have any symptoms of iron deficiency and your H/H stays high.

The bottom line on transmission for c.diff is that poop particles (and they can be microscopic) have to be transferred from one person to another to catch it. It's very hard to keep the particles contained when the patient has explosive and incontinent watery stool. But that's the transmission route. Coughing, sneezing, other physical contact, blood contact - none of these things will transfer c.diff unless there's poop particles in it. I worked with a nurse who didn't bleach her shoes, and her dogs ended up with c.diff. Now THERE was a mess!!! Something a lot of people aren't aware of - if you leave your toilet seat open when you flush, microscopic particles of whatever you're flushing get sprayed up to 6 feet. So it's scary easy to get those microscopic particles on your clothes, towels, sinks, toothbrushes, etc. But unless you've had incontinence that soiled your furniture, the main place people can come into contact with it is in the bathroom. Transmission for casual contact like for the movers would require that you had gotten those particles on the boxes and furniture. AND that they touched those things with their bare hands AND that they ate something that they touched with their hands without washing their hands. And note that c.diff doesn't infect most healthy people. Usually people who get c.diff infections have their immunity compromised in some way - age, illness, medications, etc. If you do have soft furniture (couches, mattress, etc.) that has been soiled, you'll need to find out if there's any cleaning agent you can use that will be effective without ruining the furniture. If possible, I'd consider just chucking it, frankly. This link has some information about cleaning: https://cdifffoundation.org/c-diff-infection-%E2%99%A5-home-care/ As for the antibiotics, yes, you are technically more susceptible to a return of c.diff after taking them, but you'll never clear the infection on your own without them. All you can really do is do as much as you can to get your Protein in (which will be easier after they stop the diarrhea) and all the little things to try and stay as healthy as you can otherwise. It may very well take several rounds with the meds to stop this. And it may even take a fecal transplant. I can't comment on the handling of your samples without getting unladylike. I understand that things are handled differently in the UK, but here in the US, I'd be speaking to an attorney and filing a complaint with JCAHO, CMS, and the state hospital board (basically all of the licensing and certification organizations). If they're that casual with stool samples, then they're not doing due diligence in preventing infections all the way around. I wouldn't be surprised to find a number of hospital-acquired infections in every one of your friends who are also having problems.

Bleach is your friend. It will kill the c.diff, so use it on every bleach-safe surface, especially in the bathroom. There are a couple of other cleaners that can be used on surfaces that can't be bleached, but I'm pretty sure they're not standard cleaners, it's special stuff we had in the hospital. Alcohol gels WILL NOT KILL IT. Make sure everyone who comes into contact with you knows that. Soap and Water, with the soap being used for 30 seconds before rinsing, is the only way to get it off your hands. Even if someone wears gloves, they still need to wash their hands. I don't know what to advise as far as moving house, unless you can put it off until the c.diff is cleared, or if you can have other people do the packing and moving after you have someone come in to do a deep cleaning of the house?

And I was playing with dermablend, this is the lightest shade they make. My skin is too light for foundation, it's always been a problem for me. sent from mobile device

Here's today's pic. Looks worse than it is. sent from mobile device

My baby factory is closed, period, end of discussion. LOL. But as a nurse, I am distressed many times by the attitudes of doctors when it comes to patient education. It's a pet peeve of mine to not give patients all the information they need. With repetition, since what we know about learning is that most people don't retain information well until they've heard it several times. I'm glad KP is responding to this problem. As a medical professional, I have never been impressed with KP, but I'm hearing a lot of things recently that indicate they're improving the things that concerned me. I do know personally several people who have had successful healthy pregnancies after WLS - they were bypass patients not sleeve patients, so if they can have healthy pregnancies after I'm certain sleeve patients can. The biggest thing I've seen is absolutely do not let yourself get pregnant during the first year, preferably 18 months. Certainly as long as you're still losing weight. That's where the danger period is, and so many people who are overweight have had fertility problems, so they think they can't, but losing the weight fixes the fertility problems, and BAM, they're preggers. Have patience, and it'll all be OK. Most women here who are a couple of years or more past surgery are reporting diets with intakes over 1,000 calories with many taking in 1,200 - 1,500. That's sufficient for supporting a healthy pregnancy, especially if you're able to bump it a few hundred without difficulty. As with everything else, listen to your doctors. It sounds like you don't have a choice with the surgeon, but after surgery you can find someone knowledgeable with this area, who can guide you through it. Good luck!!!

Wow. I worked long-term acute ICU, so I had my share of c.diff patients. You have a tough row to hoe, definitely. But at least you now know that your diarrhea can be resolved. Most patients can get c.diff cleared with a round or two of the strong antibiotics. If yours does not clear, as gross as it sounds, I strongly recommend looking into a fecal transplant. The remission rate for c.diff with transplant is over 90%. They don't do it right off the bat because most will respond to the antibiotics, and the transplants are a lot more difficult and people are resistant to them. I would want to find out if there is a cluster of c.diff in your bariatric unit. If so, then there have been some lapses in the cleaning and isolation protocols at your facility, and this may be a contributing factor to why so many of your friends in the same center have had problems. If c.diff is colonized in that facility, other bugs may be as well. C.diff is certainly highly contagious, but if your family isn't experiencing that horrible watery diarrhea then they probably have not contracted it. The labs at my facilities wouldn't even run the test on samples we sent if the stool was formed, because if it is, it's not c.diff (at least that's their position). It's really only contagious through handling the stool, so if your family hasn't been cleaning up after you, they likely haven't been exposed. I certainly wish you the best of luck in dealing with this!!

I've never worked in the field, but, given the nature of a hospital, it seems that there will be no "better time" for the hospital or for her. Having worked in hospitals, the only "better time" will be after she's been there a year and has FMLA protection. In relation to staffing and the manager putting herself in a bind, it will never get better.

Oh, yeah. Head injury patients have all sorts of challenges, and we're learning more and more about head injury every day almost. Anyone with a memory issue, short or long term, usually has to learn to rely on a planner of some sort to keep track of just about everything from taking medications, eating, chores, appointments. Some people do better with paper planners, some people do better with applications on smart phones. post-it notes are also very useful tools I've seen used. Since it's not my area of expertise, I'm sure there's hundreds of things I don't even know exist. I don't know where you're located, but here's one site that came up on a search that seems to have some resources that might get you started finding the right kind of specialist and therapist. http://www.headinjury.com/rehabcognitive.html

Ok, I'm dumb and clueless here - what's this about lidocaine and IV starts? Some places will offer you lidocaine to theoretically make the IV start hurt less. They take a teeny teeny needle and inject lidocaine (which is a topical anesthetic, deadens the nerves) under the skin into the tissue around the vein. It's basically the same thing they do before putting in sutures for a deep cut. Then they start the IV. Anesthesiologists in particular love this, I'm not really sure why. We never used it in the ER. I don't have any studies to back it up, but in my observations when I was doing surgical rotations, as well as my own surgeries in the past, lidocaine tends to make the veins easier to blow. I also heard this from a number of Paramedics back in the day. Also, I personally feel that the lidocaine burns worse than the IV start itself. So I'd just as soon do without it. Though you have to watch them... I had one start at me with the little needle, and if I hadn't been a medical person I wouldn't have known what he was about to do. They are supposed to tell you before they do it, but sometimes they miss it. Now, they also have a new thing that they spray on the top of the skin. That started in pediatric hospitals and has become more common. I had them try it on me with my EGD a few weeks ago, and I didn't see much difference in pain with the IV start, but there's nothing with that which would mess the IV start up, that I can see. So if they offer that, you may want to try it.

@@northstar9148 Have you gotten any neuro therapy after your head injury? The therapists are usually really good about helping clients find or develop coping mechanisms for whatever deficit they have. There are places online that will give you planned meals for each week, along with the shopping list of what to buy, and prep instructions for each meal. I don't know how much they cost, but that might be one option. Or have a family member or friend help you develop the same. A planner system can help you keep track of these things, and more that you're probably having issues with. But if you're having that much difficulty with executive processing, you really need to see a neurologist and specifically request some occupational/neuro therapy.